Counting your chickens

As children of a farmer you have a lot of responsibilities. My best friend's little brother Jon was returning from the market with a crate of chickens his daddy entrusted to him, when all of a sudden the box fell and broke open. Chickens scurried off in different directions, but Jon, determined as he was, walked all over the neighbors' yards scooping up the wayward birds and putting them back into the crate. Hoping he had found them all, he returned home expecting the worst.

"Pa, the chickens got loose," he confessed. "But I found all 12 of them."

His daddy nodded. "Well, you did real good, son, considering you left with seven."